An Analysis of Hawthorne's Short Stories

In many of Nathaniel Hawthorne's short stories, he creates characters with either a malicious or evil feature to relay to the reader a more allegorical meaning. Many would say he targets woman without justification. Therefore a reader may interpret him to be a misogynist. In the story " Rapaccinni's Daughter" he uses Beatrice as a carrier of a deadly poison. In " Young Goodman Brown" he targets Faith as the character who is lost to the Devil. In the stories "Rappaccini's Daughter," and "The Birthmark," Hawthorne also uses men as transmitters of evil illicitly. The men involved in the stories have their own flaws which contribute to the flaws of the women in their lives. Ultimately, Hawthorne in the cases above can be seen as a misogynist who directs his maliciousness on only women, yet he also uses male characters as vile transmitters of evil, therefore he is not a misogynist and targets both sexes equally.

In Young Goodman Brown, Faith, the wife of Young Goodman Brown is a character who loses her faith and submits to the Devil. Hawthorne, in this case directly uses faith as the carrier of a flaw. That is, she does not contain enough self-control, or faith to refuse the calling of the Devil. Even with the emotional plea from her husband, "Look up to heaven, and resist the wicked one," (1590) Faith cannot resist the Devil's temptation and has "uncertain sorrow," (1587) after submitting to him. The character of Faith which Hawthorne portrays is one of uncertainty and one which has a lack of self control. Faith is a good example of how Hawthorne uses a woman to symbolize a deeper significance, in this case, it is to evoke the hypocrisy of the Puritan people, that is, Puritans are really not as pure as we all think, they also contain evil characteristics, in this case, exploited at night. We cannot justify Hawthorne's usage of Faith as misogyny, in that woman were not considered equal in status to...

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...(even ours today.) For instance, men have emotions and sensitive qualities however they are shunned to express them as they are seen as weak and inferior. As “womanly.” Men are often taunted for feminine qualities as these. As for women, knowledge and a firm place in a professional position is often tainted just by being a woman, even though a woman is equally human as man and therefore equally capable in her talents and knowledge.
Fuller suggests that in order for society to properly grow, man and women, men and women and society as a whole to grow, they must do so equally and together. For man is but half of the human race, how can they progress if their compliment does not do the same?
A perfect segue into the twisted fates of Hawthorne’s characters. As said earlier, both Young Goodman Brown and the Birthmark follow a similar formula of married couples, a proud male character, a duty at which they feel they must undertake, and compliance of the female. Already, we see the disruption of Fuller’s ideas on gender.
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...Gonzales
ENGL 1301
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First Confession
In the story of “First Confession” Frank O’Connor has us look at the story from the boy, Jackie’s, point of view. Jackie is a seven year-old boy who must go to make his first confession before he can take his first communion. The story takes places in various settings that include Jackie’s house, Jackie’s school where Mrs. Ryan would come and give her warnings against hell to the children, the Chapel where Jackie and Nora have to make their first confessions and the confession booth inside the chapel. He is terrified because Mrs. Ryan, who has taught the school kids about confession, has made Jackie believe he has broken all of the Ten Commandments. Worst of all, he must confess to the priest that he has made plans to kill his paternal grandmother because she favors his sister, Nora, and her lack of city manners that drives him nuts. This story relies on his characterization, the point if view, and how the story relates to us today.
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...pieces and continues to leave its scars. This shortstory is told from the perspective of someone obviously close to Marais because of the in depth feeling portrayed in the content of the story. As an example the narrator is talking about the effects that the accidental killing is going to have on Marais's political and social life. Also, the shadow that has been caste over South Africa will continue to grow with the negative publicity an accident of this magnitude brings with it. "He knows that the story of the Afrikaner farmerregional leader of the National Party and commandant of the local security commandoshooting a black man who worked for him will fit their boycott and divestment campaigns, it'll be another piece of evidence in their truth about the country" (Gordimer). I feel that this brings out the true perspective that Gordimer is trying to manipulate the reader in to thinking. The attitude that Gordimer is expressing is one of disgust in the countries policy. In this story Gordimer is trying to shine light on the facts and the secrets that this policy has brought to the table. It is sad, but one can only imagine if racism was as prevalent as portrayed in this story. The idea that inner-racial relationship were forbidden is outlandish.
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...Kate Chopin’s ShortStories
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...September 2012
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...Yellow – ShortStoryAnalysis
Sometimes, one’s problems can get so much out of hand that they will slowly build up to be a massive blockage in one’s life. In Peter Carty’s shortstory yellow, we hear about Jon a man who generally is not happy with his current life situation. He is dealing with a lot of problems, and instead of coping with them he chooses to escape from them.
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...ShortStory/Film Analysis
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11:30-12:45
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The three shortstories are similar because they all involve jealousy. This
type of jealousy surrounds the main characters who are envious of the
achievements or the attention that another man receives. The first story is
about an old man who is taking his wife on a second honeymoon when she
encounters an old suitor, creating jealousy for the husband. In the second
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allows envy to control their actions and creates trouble in their lives. The
three stories all have jealousy, in some it is more clear than others. Jealousy
lead two of the characters to make a fool of themselves, and it cost another
character his life. In the first story, Charley took his wife Lucy on a second
honeymoon, or Golden Honeymoon, as it is titled. While they are in St.
Petersburg Fla., Mother was at the doctors office and began a conversation with
a lady, only to discover that she is Mrs. Frank M. Hartsell, Lucy's...

...mankind. "The Lottery" clearly expresses Jackson's feelings concerning mankind's evil nature hiding behind traditions and rituals. As her theme, she shows how coldness and lack of compassion in people can exhibit in situations regarding tradition and values.
Jackson presents the theme of the shortstory with the use of symbols and setting. The setting of "The Lottery" supports the theme. Settings are constructed to help build the mood and foreshadow things to come. In the lottery, however, the setting ironically foreshadows exactly the opposite of what is to come.
The story begins with a description of a seemingly cheerful environment. Jackson creates a comfortable atmosphere by describing the activities of the residents of the town. She describes children breaking into "boisterous play and their talk still of the classroom" (78). Men and women are gathered in the center of the town talking about farming, taxes or simply gossip. Jackson's description of the setting supports the theme of the story by showing how mankind is capable of cruel acts regardless of their environment.
Symbolism in the story also supports the theme of "The Lottery". The very names of the characters in the story are laden with meaning. The names of Summers, Graves, Warner, Delacroix and Hutchinson hint at the true nature of the characters. Mrs. Delacroix's name means, "of the cross" in Latin; therefore, hinting...